Miami - (April 27, 2009) The swine flu is a respiratory disease caused by type A influenza viruses. It is observed regularly in pigs and is uncommon in humans, although human infection can occur in rare instances.

Fortunately, there currently is no evidence of a swine flu pandemic and there have been no reports of guests exhibiting symptoms of swine flu on Carnival’s ships.

Carnival enforces the highest of standards for cleaning and sanitation on all of our ships to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. We are monitoring the situation in Mexico and maintain regular contact with the Centers for Disease Control. We do not anticipate that our guests’ cruise experience will be impacted by this type of illness and will not be making any adjustments to our itineraries.

For further information on swine flu, visit the CDC’s web site at www.cdc.gov .

I am not sure there is an answer for how the cruise industry should handle this. Cleanliness will work, but not if someone catches the swine flu and boards a cruise ship. bunch of people in a small space, almost a recipe for flu soup. scary...

My concern is not that Carnival will not keep the ships clean and maintain all the rules and regulations of the CDC......my concern is that once the ShipS docks in Mexico, and all passengers go to the City for the day, Carnival has no control of how the passengers conduct themselves as far as safety issues go to keep themselves safe while they are on shore; thus meaning......when you mix 1,500 plus passengers on a ship back to the U.S. from Mexico, who knows who and how many of them have come in contact with someone from Mexico who may have had the Flu.........it takes sometimes 7 days for the signs and symptoms to show. Also, as I mentioned before, Carnival can try to keep the ships as clean as possible......but they can't keep people from doing things like sneezing, coughing and touching w/o covering their mouths or washing their hands. IT'S A VERY SCARY THING AND Carnival or the ticket holders of Carnival (either of the two) are looking at losing money. If Carnival changes the itinerary then they lose, (becuase many will want their money back and Carnival knows that) and if they don't change the itinerary, then the ticket holders must make a decision to go a head with their Cruise taking a chance that they may or may not come in contact with someone who has the Flu, or to lose their money on their tickets and not go. JUST SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT................BUT I'M SURE I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS THOUGHT ABOUT THIS.

Well, we can see that the panic button has been pressed. We take a chance every day of our lives when we wake up and get out of bed. We can only take care of ourselves. We have to wash our hands, stay away from those that are ill, and go to a doctor if we become ill. SARS was scary, the Bird Flu was scary, the Pig Flu is scary, TB is scary, any infectous disease is scary. It is no one's responsibility but our own to take care of ourself. If we come in contact with someone who does have it, there's not much we can do. They showed on the news last night that they were handing out surgical masks in Mexico. Maybe they'll be doing that at the port as well.